At the half-way point of their season the Giants were 35-46, on pace for a 70-92 finish, which is 10 games better than I where thought they’d end up, but not exactly the kind of record where you’d say, “Wow, this team is really over-achieving.”

However, I’ve seen enough good things to be optimistic about the future. Of course, along with the pleasant surprises there have been the usual amount of disappointments. So let’s take a look at our first half booms and busts.

1st half MVP – Tim Lincecum; 9-1, 2.38 ERA, 114 K’s. He’s #1 in the NL in winning % and strikeouts and #2 in ERA for a team 10 games under .500 (36-46 as of the writing of this post). Additionally, it seems every one of his wins stops a Giants losing streak.

2. Bengie Molina – Molina continues to be the Giants best clutch hitter and handles a pitching staff as well as any catcher in baseball. On a team with so many young pitchers Molina’s value behind the plate would make it very difficult to deal him before the trade deadline.

3. Freddie Lewisand Brian Wilson – Lewis has the 3rd best OBP among NL leadoff hitters and is 2nd in OPS. He’s on pace to score 98 runs, impressive on a team without any big time rbi men. When Lewis is igniting the offense, the Giants win far more often than not. Wilson leads the NL in saves while converting over 90% of his save opportunities. Yes, he can make it interesting, but some of that has to be attributed to inconsistent work. Continue Reading →

You might have missed the trivia question at the end of Saturday’s post (SABR rattling). It came from Dave Smith, founder of Retrosheet.org, who was in Cleveland for the annual Society for American Baseball Research convention.

I’ll repeat the question here, and leave the answer in the comments section:

Who are the four players in the Hall of Fame who played for just one manager in their career, who is also in the Hall of Fame? (Gotta name the managers, too.)

I got two of them, needed help with the third and the fourth is a bit of a trick question. Guesses only, no cheating!

We’re rain-delayed in Cleveland. They think the two worst storms will move past by 8:30 p.m. EDT, and they’ll have the field ready shortly after that. It was beautiful and sunny all afternoon, and you’d better believe Giants players and execs are ticked there wasn’t a day game scheduled.

That sharp chill you felt going up and down your spine was not hell freezing over, it was just Barry Zito finally delivering an outstanding start. And that’s exactly what it was: ONE great start. Is it something to build on; definitely. Will it help him mentally? I don’t see how it can’t.

There was plenty of good stuff to take away.

1. NO WALKS!!!!!!! Forget just Zito. Nobody on the Giants does that. He worked both sides of the plate with equal command of all three pitches.

2. His fastball was consistently 86 to 88 mph making his 74-78 mph change-up even more effective.

3. He kept the ball DOWN. You know he kept the ball down because Ron Kulpa is a notorious low-ball ump and in order to throw 6 2/3 innings while allowing zero walks, you must keep it down. Zito, a flyball pitcher got 5 ground ball outs, including a ground ball DP.

However, one word of caution: I’m sure you’ve noticed over the last two games that Cleveland can’t hit. Yes, we’ve had terrific pitching, but the Indians haven’t hit much all season and now they’re without Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez, both on the DL. In addition, Jhonny Peralta, hitting .244 with an OPS at .723 was batting clean-up.

Pretty much everyone in their lineup is having an off year and they did Zito a big favor by swinging at some real bad pitches. Overall though, a great start; very encouraging and definitely something to build on. He had winning stuff. Let’s see what happens next.

A pleasant surprise. Jose Castillo is proving a lot of people wrong, including myself. I thought he was a waste of a pick-up, but, so far he’s looking like one those deals other teams do. Castillo, a lifetime .258 hitter with a .690 OPS is batting .268 for the Giants with a .758 OPS. Compare that to Pedro Feliz; .260 with a .721 OPS while playing in one of the best hitters’ parks in baseball.

While not yet as good a defensive third baseman as Feliz, he’s improved dramatically since the beginning of the season and is now quite good in his own right. How about that DP he started last night with a diving stop? In addition, he’s six years younger than Feliz and $3 million a year cheaper! I love his right field approach at bat (kudos to Carney Lansford who’s instilled that same approach in other Giants hitters). He can play 2nd and short and, at one time, with Pittsburgh, he was one of the top defensive second basemen in the NL.

A good pick-up by Brian Sabean.

Oh, in case you didn’t notice, the Giants are now 5 1/2 games out of 1st place. Thank God for the NL West.

Giants third base coach Tim Flannery is quite the accomplished musician, if you didn’t know. He spends a good part of the winter on tour with his guitar, so it’s not hard to figure out where he spent Monday’s day off. He went to Cleveland’s own Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame.